The most popular way to share audio with others on the internet is to create a podcast. A podcast is an audio file or series of files that can be downloaded from a website to a personal computer or mobile device such as an iPod. If someone subscribes to the podcast, then any new audio files added will be downloaded automatically.

You may have already created some high quality audio files as wavs or aifs. All you need to do is convert them to mp3s so that they are small enough to share on the internet as podcasts. You can use audacity or there are many free internet downloads of software such as Switch.

1. Firstly you need to set your audio properties. Ideally you will be using a headset or external microphone to record your audio. You can troubleshoot any problems with your audio on the common problems page
2. Download the Audacity software and the MP3 LAME plugin
3. Create a folder on your computer and call it Audacity files
4. Copy the lame_enc.dll file that you have downloaded into this folder.
5. Open Audacity and click File/Save Project As
6. Name and save your project in your Audacity folder.
7. Click Edit/Preferences
8. Under Audio I/O choose your headset or the correct audio devices under Playback and Recording
9. Under File Formats click Make a copy of the file before editing, and next to MP3 Export Setup click Find Library, click Yes to locate the file now, and browse to your Audacity folder and choose the lame_enc.dll file
10. Click OK

To record using Audacity follow the demos and instructions on the sound editing page, or in the demos and docs box opposite.

Click the play button to watch this video

Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c

Once you have created your audio files you can upload them to the internet using a podcast hosting site. There are lots of them – which one you use will depend on your preferences.

First you will need to sign up to the podcasting hosting site and then log in. You can watch the demo below about how to sign up to podasting site - Podomatic.